


What Hurts The Most

by Darkangel19881



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Attempted Suicide, Gen, Self Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-13 21:10:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14120889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkangel19881/pseuds/Darkangel19881
Summary: When Sasuke finds out that Naruto has been cutting again after Naruto promised to quit Sasuke ends their friendship, hoping that the other will see out help. Later that night Sasuke gets a phone call that he didn't expect, that leaves him feeling more guilt than he thought possible. Self-harm and attempted suicide. NONYAOI





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Naruto stared down at the razor blade in his hand and contemplated just making a small cut. He had promised his best friend that he wouldn't cut anymore, but Naruto needed to be able to release the emotions that he was currently feeling. Two weeks ago had been one of the worst days of his life. His older brother whom had been diagnosed with cancer three years ago had been told that the cancer was back and it was much worse then it was before. Naruto could still remember the fear as the doctor had entered the room, Naruto could tell from the moment that the blonde woman entered that the news wasn't good.

"I'm sorry." The doctor who had introduced herself as Tsunade had said. "But I'm afraid the cancer is back and it has spread to his bones."

"What does that mean?" A tired looking Minato Namakazi had asked.

"That means that the cancer is worse, I think that the only thing that can possibly help him now is a bone marrow transplant." Tsunade said. "I know this isn't the news you wanted to hear." Tsunade turned towards Naruto who was silently squeezing Kurama's arm.

"I would like your permission to test Naruto's blood and see if they are a match." Tsunade said. "Siblings are often the best ones to check for bone marrow as they are often the same blood type."

"Do whatever you need to do. I will do anything I can to save his life." Minato said. He knew that Naruto didn't like needles, but he also knew that Naruto would do anything to save Kurama from the hell that he had gone through before.

"Is that okay with you?" Tsunade asked Naruto, the blonde nodded.

"I'll do whatever I can for him!" Naruto said firmly. Naruto wasn't exactly afraid of needles though, he was afraid that his secret would be discovered if someone got a needle too close to him. Naruto had started cutting shortly after Kurama had been diagnosed with cancer the first time. Naruto had only been 10 at the time, and he had been scared the first time he had tried it, but in the end he had liked the way it made him feel, he even liked watching the blood roll down his arm. Of course, his own best friend had soon discovered what Naruto had been up too and had threatened to stop talking to him if Naruto didn't stop. So Naruto had somehow been able to stop cutting then, but now three years later facing the same situation as he was back then, and the urge to cut had never been stronger than it was now.

And today, Naruto had found out that neither he nor his father were a match for Kurama, which meant that neither of them could donate the much needed bone marrow. Now Kurama would have to wait until a donor could be found, or the eventually the cancer would kill Kurama.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke but I have to break my promise not to cut." Naruto murmured as he brought the razor to his arm, making a small nick in his skin. Naruto watched as a small dot of blood appeared, before he wiped it away and made another slightly bigger cut. Tears filled Naruto's eyes, he didn't want any of this to be happening. He only wanted for his older brother to be okay, he didn't want to lose him to such a disease.

"Naruto," Naruto heard his dark haired friend yell and the sound of rushing footsteps hurrying down the hall. Panic filled Naruto and dropped the razor and kicked it under the bed, and quickly wiping away the blood on his arm. He really hoped that Sasuke wouldn't notice that Naruto was acting suspiciously.

"In here!" Naruto yelled as he pulled the sleeve down on his arm. Seconds later Sasuke burst through the door, panting harshly as he tried to catch his breath.

"Itachi told me that it you weren't a match for Kurama." Sasuke said and Naruto nodded blinking back tears. He didn't like thinking of what could happen if Kurama didn't find a match and soon.

"How are you?" Sasuke asked, he knew that Kurama and Naruto were just as close as he and Itachi were. He couldn't imagine how Naruto must have been feeling at that moment.

"I don't want to lose my brother." Naruto said, raising his eyes to meet his friend's. "More than anything I am terrified of losing him. The only thing I wanted was to be able to to save him, now I can't even do that. And I still have to watch him suffer, it's not fair.I don't want him to hate me for not being able to help him."

"He knows you love him and will do anything for him." Sasuke said. "There is no way that Kura could ever hate you for anything. It's not your fault your blood types don't match."

"But they should have." Naruto said. "They should have matched me or Dad's but it didn't match either."

"Maybe he was a match to your mother." Sasuke said mentioning Naruto's mother who had been killed in an car accident a few years before.

"Probably." Naruto said. "But still, I can't help but feel useless in this situation."

"You're not useless." Sasuke reassured Naruto. "And Kura would say the same thing. Don't give up on him just yet, he's going to keep fighting as long as he can."

"I know." Naruto murmured, raising his hand and placing it on the other arm that he had made the cuts on. He tightened his grip, hoping the bleeding would slow down before Sasuke noticed the liquid dripping down his arm. He had likely cut too deeply with that last one, he just hoped that Sasuke wasn't careful enough attention. Naruto didn't know what he would do without Sasuke's friendship. Naruto depended on Sasuke more than Sasuke knew, there wasn't another person other than Kurama that Naruto trusted so much.

"You know if you ever feel the urge to cut, you can come to me." Sasuke said breaking the momentary silence that had fell between the two. "I don't want you to ever feel like you can't come to me. I don't care how late it is, but if you start cutting again. I can't have anything to do with that, our friendship will be over." Naruto closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply before exhaling. He really hoped that Sasuke didn't look too closely at his arm.

"I know." Naruto whispered, even though he hated that he was lying to his best friend. He hated that he couldn't tell Sasuke about the headaches that he had been getting more frequently, each one getting worse than the one previously. Naruto wanted to tell his father, but Minato was already overworked as it was, trying to pay for the part of Kurama's treatment that their insurance didn't cover.

"Something else bothering you?" Sasuke asked sitting down on Naruto's bed beside the other teen. "You can tell me anything you know."

"I'm okay." Naruto lied. "just got a lot of stuff from Kurama's situation on my mind. Besides I want to hear about your asking Sakura out."

"Eh." Sasuke said shrugging, a blush turning his cheeks red. "It went okay, I suppose. She said yes which is all that matters."

"I told you she would. She's been crushing on you forever." Naruto said with a forced laugh. He was tired and he really wished Sasuke would leave so that he could continue his earlier activities. He needed to be able to release what he was feeling and he couldn't do that with Sasuke around.

"For a change you were right, loser." Sasuke teased and Naruto punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"When are you going to ask Hinata out?" Sasuke asked. Naruto shrugged.

"I'm not sure that it would be a good idea. I don't really want to mess with Neji." Naruto replied, not mentioning his fear that he had something going on with his own health. Naruto was afraid of getting more bad news so he decided he was going to try and hide it for as long as possible.

After a few more minutes of conversation, Sasuke's cell phone rang and as Sasuke stood up and exited the room to talk to whomever had called. Naruto reached down and picked up the razor from the floor. He knew it wasn't a good idea to cut while Sasuke was here. But Naruto's head was aching badly and he felt sick to his stomach, not to mention he was stressed over the situation with Kurama. Pushing up the sleeve of his shirt, Naruto placed the razor blade near the crook of his elbow and made a shallow slice, he closed his eyes as he enjoyed the brief moment of pain that the cut had made. He opened his eyes when he felt the blood well up, he exhaled as he watched the blood start rolling down his arm. Hearing footsteps come his way, Naruto quickly pulled his shirt sleeve down and tossed the razor to the side, not noticing that blood was starting to seep through his shirt sleeve.

"Itachi wants me....what the heck happened?" Sasuke asked his eyes falling on the sleeve that had a small amount of blood soaking through. "Don't tell me you were actually in here cutting while I was talking to Itachi? How long as this been going on again?"

"A couple of weeks." Naruto said meekly, his blue eyes dropping to the floor, shame filling him. He really had wanted to quit cutting but Sasuke didn't understand how strong the urge was, Naruto was too weak to keep avoiding it for long.

"I guess our friendship doesn't mean anything to you then." Sasuke said, anger filling him as he stared down at Naruto. Ignoring, the boy's obviously shamed look Sasuke turned and stomped out of the room.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called out, panic filling him as he jumped to his feet and hurried after his friend. "Sasuke! Please stop. I promise I'll quit!"

"Your promise doesn't mean shit!" Sasuke snarled refusing to turn around and look at Naruto. "You promised you wouldn't do that crap anymore."

"It's not that easy to just stop." Naruto said tears filling his eyes. "You don't know the stress I live with."

"Stop using your brother as an excuse!" Sasuke said. "I don't think he would be pleased to find out that you are still cutting either!"

"Please don't tell him." Naruto pleaded, he hated to think what his brother would think of him cutting. "He doesn't need to know."

"Yes, he does, I think this situation has gone on too long. You need some serious help." Sasuke said. "And until you get it, don't bother talking to me again." Naruto watched with tear filled eyes as Sasuke stormed off, dialing someone on his cell phone as he did. Naruto turned and rushed back to his room, flopping down on his bed. Burying his face in his pillow, he wondered if he had just completely ruined his friendship with Sasuke. Even if he did get help, Naruto couldn't help but wonder if Sasuke would ever speak to him again.

Thirty minutes later, Naruto heard footsteps approaching his door.

"Naruto?" His brother's voice called out quietly. "Can I come in?"

"Yes." Naruto said his voice muffled against the pillow.

"You want to tell me what's going on with you?" Kurama asked, as he entered the room and crossed the floor to sit on the edge of Naruto's mattress.

"Something tells me Sasuke already told you." Naruto replied, refusing to meet Kurama's eyes.

"He did." Kurama confirmed. "Why?"

"Why because I need to release my feelings somehow." Naruto answered. "I have no way of doing that and if I keep it inside, I'm going to explode."

"If you couldn't have come to me you should have gone to Sasuke." Kurama said.

"I didn't want to bother you with everything that you have going on." Naruto said. "You shouldn't have to deal with my shit on top of your own."

"Language." Kurama said. "You know I would do anything for you. I know my situation is difficult for you to deal with but that doesn't mean you need to cut to deal with your own feelings. I'm kind of disappointed in you for taking this route when you have so many other people that are willing to listen to you." that statement shot a wave of pain through Naruto's heart. He never wanted to be a disappointment to his brother, he only wanted Kura to be proud of him.

"I think it's time that you found some help." Kurama said. "It's pretty clear that this issue isn't going to go away on it's own. I'm going to tell Father and see what he wants to do."

"Please don't." Naruto said finally pulling himself away from the pillow to look up at his brother. "I don't want him to know."

"He needs too though, he can get you help for this." Kurama said softly as he stood up and went in search of their father. Naruto closed his eyes, he didn't even want to know what his father would think.

"Kurama tells me that you are cutting." Minato said sharply from the doorway. "Why."

"I don't know." Naruto answered shame filling him, he could hear the disappointment in his father's voice. He didn't want to look up and see it in his face too.

"What are you thinking?" Minato yelled. "I have enough on my plate with Kurama's situation. I don't need you to add to my list of problems but you have. Now I have to worry about trusting you enough not to harm yourself. I don't know how much you think that I can deal with but this is it. I almost want to put you in foster care and be done with your useless ass."

Tears filled Naruto's eyes, his father would so easily give up on him? But he would fight for Kurama?

"Do you even know how disappointed I am right now?" Minato asked. "What will people think when they find out my son is choosing to self harm rather than to talk to someone?"

"It's not like you're here to talk too." Naruto said softly, "You're always working."

"To pay the bills so that you can apparently hurt yourself." Minato said, glaring at Naruto before turning towards the door.

"I'm going to talk to someone at CPS and see what they want me to do about you. I'll let you know later what I decide." Minato went out the door, and Kurama wincing at Naruto's sobbing form, followed him down the hall. He hadn't expected their father to lose it like that, that had been the farthest thing on Kurama's mind. He only wanted to help his brother.

Once Kurama and their father was gone, the broken hearted Naruto sat up on his bed. He picked up his cell phone dialing Sasuke's phone number, deep down he hoped that his friend would answer the phone. But after several rings, Naruto hung the phone up and pushed himself up off the bed. If no one wanted him in their lives then Naruto would remove himself from their presence. Shuffling to the door, Naruto made his way down the hall towards the bathroom. He knew his father kept his sleeping pills in the bathroom. Entering the small room, Naruto opened the medicine cabinet and sure the sleeping pills were on the first shelf.

Picking the bottle up, Naruto twisted the cap off and dumped the pills out into his palm. He counted fifty pills and figured that that would be enough to end his miserable existence. Grabbing a cup, Naruto proceeded to swallow the pills with a couple of swallows and mouthfuls of water. Once he was finished, Naruto dumped the empty pill bottle in the garbage and exited the bathroom, heading back to his bedroom. Shutting the door behind him, Naruto went and lay back on his bed, closing his eyes and allowing himself to drift away from consciousness.

TBC? It sort of sucks, but since my sister in law died last week it's been on my mind. So it's kind of therapy on my part. If you review that awesome if not that's okay too cause like I said its therapy.


	2. Chapter 2

What Hurts The Most

Chapter 2

Kurama followed his father into the restroom. He couldn't believe Minato had had the nerve to spout all of that BS to Naruto. What was Minato thinking? Kurama's issues weren't anymore important than Naruto's where.

"What were you thinking?" Kurama asked. "Naruto needs your support, he needs to know that you love him as much as you love me, he doesn't need for you to give him up to foster care he needs for you to care and to help him see his worth. He is your son after all."

"No, he's not." Minato said. "He might have blonde hair and blue eyes but that doesn't make him mine."

"How can he not be yours?" Kurama asked. "Mom wouldn't ever cheat on you?"

"Because after you, I couldn't have anymore kids." Minato said as entered the restroom. "Your mom and I wanted at least one more, so I gave her permission to sleep with the blonde man that she worked with. So the child would actually look like it belonged to me." Minato reached up and opened the medicine cabinet, hoping that if he slept for a little while this situation would disappear. Only Minato noticed that his sleeping pills weren't on the shelf that they were supposed to be on. Frowning, Minato wondered if he had put his sleeping pills in his room.

"Something wrong?" Kurama asked, noticing the frown on his father's face. He was still shocked over the news that Naruto wasn't his full blooded brother.

"My sleeping pills are gone. I thought I put them back last night." Minato said, suddenly Kurama's face went pale and he went over to the garbage can and reached into it, pulling out the empty pill bottle.

"Call the paramedics!" Kurama said, panic filling his voice as he exited the bathroom, heading down the hall towards Naruto's room. Throwing Naruto's door open, he found Naruto lying on his bed, looking like he was asleep except his chest was heaving for his next breath of air.

"Naruto!" Kurama cried out, rushing across the floor and sitting down on the bed as he placed two fingers on Naruto's neck. Naruto's pulse was thin and weak and Kurama feared that the paramedics wouldn't get there in time.

"Why?" Kurama wondered as he lifted Naruto's head as it turned limply in Kurama's hands. "Why would you do something like this?" Kurama shoved two fingers deep into Naruto's throat hoping that it would induce vomiting which would mean that Naruto wasn't too far gone to be saved. He couldn't bare the thought of Naruto not pulling through this.

"How is he?" Minato asked as he entered the room, his cell phone held up to one ear.

"Unresponsive so far." Kurama said grimly as he pushed his fingers back down Naruto's, only for nothing to happen. Removing his fingers, Kurama lay Naruto back down on the bed, and shifted his position so that he could give Naruto CPR.

Minato repeated what Kurama had told him to the 911 operator before joining Kurama on Naruto's bed.

"You do mouth to mouth and I'll do the chest compression's." Minato said after he got off of the phone, assured that the paramedics were on their way. Kurama nodded and pinched Naruto's nostrils shut and leaned Naruto's head back before leaning over and pressing his mouth against Naruto's before repeating the process a few more times before Minato intertwining his hands began pressing down on Naruto's chest, above his heart.

"Come on Naruto, don't do this." Minato said, guilt at his own actions eating at him as he pressed down on Naruto's chest. "Come back to us, don't leave us like this!" Kurama felt tears form in his eyes as he placed his fingers on Naruto's neck, checking for a pulse.

"It's getting weaker." Kurama told his father, who continued to press down hard on Naruto's chest, both of them wincing when they heard the sound of a breaking rib.

"Naruto! Come back!" Minato pleaded, his heart breaking in his chest. "I'm sorry, so sorry!"

A few minutes later the paramedics entered the room, a gurney behind them.

"Please step back, we'll take it from here." The brown haired medic whose name tag read Rin said.

"Please save him." Minato said. "Don't let him die!"

"We'll do our best." Rin said. "What did he take? And when?"

"He took my sleeping pills, about fifty of them I think." Minato said. "I think he may have taken them about twenty minutes ago. We've been doing CPR for the last ten minutes or so but he hasn't responded."

"We'll do our best for him." Rin said as she placed an oxygen mask over Naruto's mouth and nose. The other paramedic inserted a needle into the crook of Naruto's arm. Before the two moved Naruto's body from the bed and onto the gurney. "One of you can ride with him in the ambulance."

"You go with him." Minato told Kurama, "I'll meet you at the hospital." Kurama nodded and trailed after the paramedics who were moving Naruto's gurney out of the room.

Once Naruto was loaded into the ambulance, Kurama down beside Naruto. Holding the unconscious teen's limp hand in his own. Kurama wondered how they had ended up in this situation. One moment things had been going okay and the next Naruto was fighting for his life. Speaking of which, Kurama was going to have to let Sasuke know what was going on. He knew that the two teens had gotten into an argument before Sasuke had informed him of Naruto's activities.

"How is he?" Kurama asked Rin who bent over Naruto, doing what Kurama wasn't sure.

"He's hanging on by a thread." Rin said grimly. "I'm afraid it won't take much to make that thread snap."

"Please keep him alive." Kurama pleaded. "I don't understand why he would do something like this. He was fine earlier, a little moodier than usual but considering the news that he'd been told that was understandable."

"Does he have any health issues?" Rin asked, keeping her focus on Naruto.

"No. Not that I know of." Kurama said. "Unless he's been hiding something from us. He's perfectly normal."

"Has he had trouble with depression?" Rin asked.

"He cuts" Kurama said. "I don't know if that's caused by depression or not. I always assumed that he done because of the pressure he was under." Rin frowned it did sound like the teenager had some mental issues that needed to be dealt with, but could there have been another reason for his sudden suicide attempt?

"Is he bipolar?" Rin asked and Kurama shrugged.

"I don't think so. He's been a lot more moody lately, either happy or super grumpy, but I don't think it's because he's bipolar."

"It's possible there's an issue with his brain that is effecting his emotions." Rin said. "I don't know for sure and a doctor would have to do a brain scan to be certain. But if the mood swings are severe enough a tumor could be causing his current symptoms. Do you know if he's had any headaches or trouble with his vision lately?"

"It's possible." Kurama said. "He's been hiding himself away a lot lately. It's possible that he was trying to keep us from seeing something. But if the symptoms were severe enough why wouldn't he come to us for help?"

"Probably because he was scared." Rin said as the ambulance came to a stop, and the back doors threw open. Rin moved quickly moving the gurney out of the ambulance and into the ER.

Kurama headed into the waiting room, knowing that he was going to be forced to wait to see his little brother. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he quickly dialed Itachi's number. He really didn't want to make this call, but Sasuke deserved to know that his best friend had tried to take his own life.

"Kurama," Itachi said as soon as he saw the number on his screen. "What's going on?"

"I need you to get Sasuke and bring him to Konoha general." Kurama said. "Something serious has happened to Naruto and I want to explain it to him in person."

"Is Naruto okay?" Itachi asked. "I know that he and Sasuke got into a pretty serious argument. Sasuke is still being a pissy little bastard over it."

"I'm not sure right now. But it doesn't look good for Naruto at any rate. So please just get here as quickly as you can." Kurama said, knowing that Itachi would drive like a demon to get here as fast as he could.

Once he hung up Kurama went and found his father in the waiting room, his father was still filling out the necessary paperwork to have Naruto admitted.

"How is he?" A red eyed Minato asked, looking up when Kurama approached him.

"According to Rin he was hanging on by a threat that could snap at any time." Kurama replied, as he sat down beside his father. "I'm hoping that doesn't happen."

"As he ever said anything about feeling like killing himself before this?" Minato asked. "Or was it just because what I said about giving him up?"

"He never mentioned anything to me." Kurama said. "But he has been having some mood swings lately, I just thought it was him being a normal teenager, but Rin mentioned that it could have been symptom of something much more serious."

"And neither of us were exactly there to listen to his concerns so he felt the need to hide it from us." Minato said, feeling guiltier than hell at the thought. He had been so focused on helping Kurama that he hadn't noticed that Naruto had been asking for help for some time. What a father he had turned out to be Minato thought bitterly.

"This is my fault. I shouldn't have allowed myself to become so exhausted and stressed with everything that was going on. I should have paid more attention to him." Minato murmured. "Even if he's technically not my son, I still had a responsibility to care for him."

"I think we both failed him in the long run." Kurama said. "Neither of us noticed that anything was wrong so we are both to blame." Suddenly the sound of rushing feet came towards them, and Kurama looked up to find both Itachi and a worried looking Sasuke rushing towards them.

"What's going on with Naruto?" Sasuke asked. "Itachi told me that something serious had happened? Is he okay?" Kurama sighed, how the heck did you tell someone that their best friend tried to kill themselves and that they might have succeeded?

"Naruto tried to kill himself." Kurama said softly. "He overdosed on Dad's sleeping pills."

"What?" Sasuke asked staring at Kurama like he had grown three heads in the mere space of a few seconds. "He was healthy enough to be cutting last time I talked to him."

"Well, I think our little confrontation helped push him over the edge." Minato said.

"How is he?" Sasuke asked, slumping down into a chair, shock coursing through him. Had Sasuke had a part in making Naruto feel like he had no other choice than to take his own life?

"He was unresponsive when we found him." Kurama said gently, knowing this would be hard for Sasuke to hear. "Dad and I attempted CPR but it hadn't done much good when the medics had gotten there."

"Why would he do this?" Sasuke wondered. "Didn't he know that he would only be hurting those that loved him by doing something like this?"

"Probably not." Kurama said gently, noticing that Itachi hadn't moved from the spot he had stopped in, the news about Naruto's suicide attempt seemed to have frozen him. "The medic also thinks that there could have been a medical reason behind it as well."

"Like being bipolar or something?" Sasuke asked, angry at himself for not seeing the signs that something was wrong with his friend.

"Not exactly, she said that it was possible that there was something wrong with Naruto's brain, I'm sure you noticed his moodiness as of late." Kurama said. Sasuke nodded.

"I think he's been having some pretty bad headaches too." Sasuke said, wishing that he had talked about this sooner, then maybe Naruto wouldn't be here right now. "He tried to hide it but I know him too well, I could see that he was hurting. Kami, I feel so damn guilty. I wish I had never left him along. I knew he had to be hurting because otherwise he wouldn't have been cutting to begin with. Is it my fault that he's here?"

"While it's true that all of us could have tried a lot harder, I don't think this could have been prevented." Itachi said. "Especially if he does have something going on with his brain."

"When will you find that out?" Sasuke asked.

"We have to convince the doctors that there is a reason to even do a brain scan." Kurama said. "but I think the main goal is to get him stabilized right now." He didn't mention that the odds of that happening were very slim. Naruto had been fading from their lives, and Kurama wondered if there was even time to save him. His broke thinking about his little brother suffering in silence for who knew how long.

"This is my fault." Sasuke said, staring guiltily at the floor. "If I hadn't confronted him like I did, maybe he never would have gotten the idea that he would be better off dead."

"You're not to blame." Minato said gently. "You only wanted to help him. That's nothing to be ashamed about." The group drifted into silence after that, each lost in their own thoughts about what Naruto meant to them, and how they could have shown the teen that they cared.

Two hours later a white haired doctor approached them, stopping when he reached Minato.

"Family of Naruto Uzumaki" he asked, and Minato nodded.

"I'm Kabuto." he introduced himself. "I'm in charge of Naruto's care."

"How is he?" Kurama asked, though he was dreading the doctors answer. He didn't want to hear that Naruto had died.

"He's in critical condition." Kabuto informed them. "We were able to pump his stomach but he has slipped into a coma, and I fear that the amount of pills may have done some damage to his kidney's. We will be watching that closely." Kurama closed his eyes, how long would this nightmare last? Would it end with Naruto in a grave or Naruto recovering? He supposed the only thing they could do was wait and find out.

"When can we see him?" Minato asked. He was kind of afraid to see the condition that his youngest child was in, but he wanted the teen to know that he wasn't alone.

"He's being settled into ICU." Kabuto replied. "It shouldn't take too much longer."

"The medic mentioned the possibility of there being something wrong with Naruto's brain." Kurama said. "Is it possible to do a brain scan and see."

"We will be doing one soon to check if there is any brain activity so we will be able to see if there is something wrong then." Kabuto said.

"And what if there is no brain activity?" Sasuke asked. "What does that mean?"

"In this case it would mean that he succeeded in killing himself." Kabuto replied bluntly, ignoring the glare that the taller dark haired male sent him. He was never anything but honest with his patient's families, even if that was a truth that no one wanted to hear.

A half hour later, the small group was lead down a hallway, where they entered an elevator where they went up three stories before stopping on the correct floor. From there Kabuto lead them to a room where Naruto lay on a bed surrounded by machines. Naruto's eyes were closed and a tube had been inserted into his mouth that lead to a machine that was helping him to breathe, another tube had been inserted in Naruto's nose and Kurama wasn't sure what it was for and he wasn't sure that he wanted to know the answer either. Entering the room, Kurama reached out and took hold of Naruto's hand, it was cold and clammy and Kurama didn't like it.

"I'm sorry," Kurama whispered. "so damn sorry, you don't deserve to be fighting for your life. I wish I could have been a better brother, wished I could have reacted differently to your cutting again. I feel like Father and I pushed to do this, that we failed you by not hearing your cry for help." tears fell down Kurama's face as he reached out and touched Naruto's cool cheek.

"Please don't stop fighting. We need you." Kurama whispered, feeling the others presence as they entered the room, Sasuke coming up and standing beside him. Kurama could see Sasuke's guilt in his eyes as tears filled them.

"I'm sorry too, Naruto, I failed you in the worst possible way, and now no one knows if you are going to pull through this or not. Please fight, I don't know what I would do without my best friend. I know I said some things that I shouldn't have and you don't know how much I regret them. More than anything I wish I could go back and change things, I would stay with you so that you wouldn't feel so alone." Sasuke said, he hated seeing his normally hyperactive friend like that, so still. It wasn't right and it only hurt Sasuke's heart that much more to see him in such a condition. Could this really have been prevented? Had Naruto had thoughts of suicide before this and hadn't told anyone? That thought made Sasuke angry but not at Naruto, at himself. If he had been a much better friend they wouldn't be here right now.

"There's enough guilt going around the room." Kurama told him softly, his free reaching up and squeezing Sasuke's shoulder. "Maybe if we had spent more time with him we would have know where Naruto's feelings were at the time, but its too late for that now. All we can do is hope and pray that he pulls through."

"I treated him so badly, and it hurts like hell just thinking about it." Sasuke said. "I'm more sorry for that than you could even possibly know. I don't think I can ever make up for it."

"You can by being here for him." Kurama said. "We all failed him in some way but starting now we can do our best to make him feel how much he is truly loved and cherished. If anything that's what he needs more than anything is to know that he is very much loved."

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Liz


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